


S'mores and Smoke

by DragonflyxParodies



Series: Capricorn [4]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Camping, Family Bonding, First Meetings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 19:16:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19447855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonflyxParodies/pseuds/DragonflyxParodies
Summary: The first time Cassandra meets Jason, she calls him brother.





	S'mores and Smoke

They didn’t meet until after his second homecoming, until after the truth had come out.

Cassandra didn’t bother trying to hunt him, or to search him out. Instead she waited, tight jeans and a black jacket zipped up to her chin, outside of Tim’s school. She waited until the final bell rang and students began pouring out of the building – into buses, fancy cars. Chauffeurs and butlers. Waited until a motorcycle pulled up, a man in a brown jacket and tattered jeans waiting, too, for his baby brother.

He didn’t see her until she was already there, leaning gently into his shoulder. And he didn’t jump, just tensed, tilted his helmeted head to look at her.

She smiled at him, gentle as she could make it, and straightened. It took him a moment to lift his hands and remove his helmet. He eyed her warily once it was gone.

She saw movement, out of the corner of her eye, on a barley-there rooftop. A hint of red, behind concrete.

“Baby brother.” She said, and the genuine confusion pulling at the corners of his eyes hurt her heart.

“What do you want?”

“Camping.”

“What about it?”

“Will…help. With Pit.”

She’d never seen him – seen _anyone_ – react like he did. His whole body, jerking and muscles pulling taught as a single emotion – a single burst – of panic just _rolled_ right through him. Panic, twisting into fear into rage into _horror_. And he just – he just _stared_ at her.

“Does he know?” Jason finally whispered, and his voice was broken, rasping over shattered glass and sand. She took his hand, laced their fingers together and squeezed. He could feel her shaking, then. And she could feel his.

“Want…know why? He…hurt you?” She whispered back. He ran through a whole host of emotions then, cascading from one to the other in a seamless flow.

“Does it really matter?” He asked, incredulous.

She met his gaze, held it until his defensiveness fell away.

“For me? Yes. Helped.”

“Cain? You…”

And – he understood. It took her breath away. No one else had. Bruce hadn’t, Dick hadn’t, Stephanie hadn’t, _Barbara_ hadn’t. They’d been upset, angry. But –

She’d loved him. And she still loved him. He had loved her in the only way she thought he knew how to. And – and he’d let her go.

“I’d rather – pretend. Not everything was a lie. Avoid him. Y’know.”

She squeezed his hand again, and pressed herself against his side. He relaxed, a little.

“Come. Camping.”

“I don’t –“

“Baby bird too.”

He squeezed his eyes shut.

“Not a…trick. Just…woods. S’mores.”

Tim came stumbling out of the building towards them, a hesitant kind of excitement tracing through his body. Hope.

“Alright.”

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after the yet-unpublished 'Jason Kidnaps Tim' thing, but before Choices.


End file.
